HEY JEWS

One of my teachers told me Colin Powell was also a Shabbos goy!

Not sure I will take the plunge (those familiar with the mikveh will get the pun) and become an actual Jew, but in the meantime I am attending a two-semester conversion course co-sponsored by three Conservative congregations in the area.

Believe me, if you'd have told me I'd be doing this even like five years ago, I'd have told you you were nuts given that I considered myself an atheist! But having stumbled into to Judaic studies I've found a lot that resonates. We'll see how it goes. At the very least I am filling in a gaping hole in my education--I have never taken so much as a comparative religion course in college. And nothing from my Episcopal upbringing stuck.

I went to see Inglorious Basterds on Sat night

What is a 'shabbos goy' exactly? It sounds quite cool. Is it demanding?

During Shabbot, many/most traditional (i.e. Orthodox) Jews observe prohibitions against things like turning lights off and on, mowing the lawn, etc.; some hire (ahead of time, as conducting business/using money is also prohibited during Shabbot) other people (i.e. non-Jews) to do these things for them on that day. I don't know if this is commonly practiced any more?

It is! My dad's wife had a job as the accounts manager for a bagel factory run by Orthodox Israelis in St Paul and found herself shabbos goying for them whenever they needed help on dark Friday afternoons etc.

I've been a shabbos goy on two occasions! Turning stove burners off/down/up once, fixing a fridge light the other time.

it sounds like an unanswerable argument for diaspora living

Any of you Jews fasting today?

Why would a Jew do that? Next Monday, yes (Yom Kippur). But if there is a day-after-second-day-of-Rosh-Hashana fast, I have yet to learn about it.

I thought you were supposed to fast between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (fwiw, I am not. I even ate crab last night oooh)

apparently it is a fast day, although i can't imagine non-orthodox jews observe it:

Tishrei 3rd is a fast day mourning the assassination of the Jewish royal Gedaliah ben Achikam, governor of the Land of Israel for a short period following the destruction of the First Temple. Gedaliah's killing spelled the end of the small remnant of a Jewish community that remained in the Holy Land after the destruction, which fled to Egypt. (According to many opinions, the assassination of Gedaliah actually occurred on Rosh Hashanah, but the commemoration of the event is postponed to the day after the festival).

OH yeah now I do remember reading something about that! Yeah I don't know anyone who fasts for that.

Yom Kippur fasting tips would be appreciated, though.

Tip #1: Don't accidentally eat anything.

are "energy gels" considered food?

well given that water is a no-no, I'm gonna go with energy gel=food.

Eat kreplach before the fast starts.

what would be a nice thing to say to a Jew today?

shana tova

or anything except "hey jew"

"what would be a nice thing to say to a Jew today?

― holosystolic murmur and the thrill (gbx), 19:04 יום שני 21 ספטמבר 2009 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
shana tova"

also: gmar hatima tova

also: you have a nice tuchas

^^^always good to hear

HEY! (HEY!)
JEWS! (JEWS!)
I DON'T LIKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND

So at the reform Rosh Hashanah service I went to they blew the shofar (actually they had 4 people blowing them) even though it was Shabbat/the Sabbath (they do not blow the shofar on Shabbat in Conservative and Orthodox synagogues), and the Rabbi had his sermon on his Mac (not handwritten notes). Wow.

OK and I thought "What a Wonderful World" sing-along was bad.

Hey Jews FYI last night in Jew School I learned that according to the Talmud, pickle liquor does not count as food/drink on Yom Kippur. So I will be taking a flask of pickle juice to services.

yall i had the most amazing jewish-hungarian food in budapest last week, thank you so much for existing for 5000 years and undergoing countless acts of persecution so you could bring me stuffed goose neck and cabbage noodles

You could say we invented comfort food.

i didnt know stuffed goose is an hungarian dish?!
more like goulash and stuffed cabbage...

easy fast, jews!

more like an easy 24 hours stay at home for me.
i'm not fasting, but i gotta finish this book..

g'mar hativah tova!

oy gevalt

Tattoo jew. I could do.

some of those tats are pretty sweet

Jorgen101

Why should I care about this? Christians adopted a "fresher" take on their religion and gave the world Stryper, Evanescence, and Creed. Screw religion.
13 minutes ago | Reply | Like | Report abuse

ronen

A "fresher" take Jorgen101? Yes, how could we forget "Christian freshness" spawned Hitler, the KKK, Southern Baptist lynchings, African American Slave trade, and an entirely beautiful re-versioning that Jesus himself wasn't really Jewish but somehow a blonde-haired, blue eyed Aryan. Thank you for "freshening" up Religion Jorgen101, I'm sure everyone's money donations in the collection bins on Sunday would be greatly appreciated and everyone needs to convert to the "fresher" religion, because we all know through history what happens to those who choose not to convert ;) you're quite the intellect here on this CNN discussion. less
5 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse

ronen has some very challenging opinions, should post here

"When I'm on stage screaming, hitting my face with a microphone and pouring beer on my head, at least I'm singing about the Torah," said the 26-year-old founder of PunkTorah, an outreach effort to inspire Jewish spirituality.

UH

tbh I thought that was awesome

These Internet and media savvy Jews are behind what Ari Wallach, a 34-year-old social entrepreneur and consultant in New York, likes to call "Judaism 2.0."

OY VEY

Maybe we should change thread title.

Oy. I know some of the people involved with this, but I wasn't sure what it was till now.

Why should I care about this? Christians adopted a "fresher" take on their religion and gave the world Stryper, Evanescence, and Creed. Screw religion.

OTM

"judaism 2.0"

somehow i feel like we've been though more than just one version in the last several thousand years. more like judaism 1,769.0.

I wish there was some kind of reasonable middle ground between being a hidebound traditionalist and a tattooed idiot blogger

it's called indifference. been working for me.

http://www.jewcy.com/files/imagecache/img-carousel/files/camploljewz.jpg

loljews

http://images.magnetmail.net/images/clients/SIXTHANDI/hamentaschennewsletter.jpg

Purim, bitchez!

drunkenness!

And, according to the above image, vaginas!

Ha. Not till February 28th, right?

Correct. But it never to early for hamantachen (sp?) vaginas, really.